WINTERSET HY-VEE: Businesses Displaced

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WINTERSET HY-VEE: Businesses Displaced

Winterset is seeing a wave of commercial building.

Last year the Madison County town saw a new Fareway store open, along with two new convenience stores. Three years ago a new strip mall opened which now has five businesses and a bank is building a new office along Highway 92.

Now Hy-Vee has announced it will come to Winterset with the construction of a 35,000 square foot store, employing 175 people. The Hy-Vee site will be on North John Wayne Drive and Mills Street where the former Gold Buffet restaurant was located.

Buildings on that site will be removed, including A Plus Muffler. The owner of the muffler shop, Tim Nguyen, does not own the building. He says he has been looking all over town for a new shop with no success.

He came to the US from Vietnam when he was 10, and has done business at that site for 15 years. He has seven kids to feed, and now doesn’t know what to do.

Since the Hy-Vee project became public, his business has dropped off. Although Nguyen’s business situation is serious, he thinks the Hy-Vee project is great for Winterset, but not for him.

Hy-Vee is still finalizing its plans with the city in early April. Construction could begin this fall, with the store opening in 2014.